Most adults in the United States think former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein did not play a role in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, according to a poll by the New York Times and CBS News. 57 per cent of respondents think Hussein was not involved in the events of 9/11. Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked and crashed four airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people. In June 2004, the federal commission that investigated the events of 9/11 stated that there had been "no collaborative relationship" between the deposed Iraqi regime and the terrorist network in the planning and carrying out of the attacks. On Jun. 17, 2004, U.S. president George W. Bush dismissed the findings of the federal commission, declaring, "This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al-Qaeda. ... http://www.angus-reid.com

Pakistani helicopter gunships and ground forces attacked a militant hideout near the Afghan border on Wednesday killing up to 30 people, according to a senior official in the North Waziristan tribal region.Sayed Zaheerul Islam, the political agent and top government administrator in North Waziristan, said between 25 and 30 foreign fighters and tribal militants had been killed and more wounded. A witness said he saw helicopters attack village houses where women and children lived. The attack came shortly after 7 a.m. (0200 GMT), and just days before U.S. President George W. Bush is due to arrive in Pakistan on a trip that will also take him to India. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1673130

Salim Rashid, 34, a Shiite laborer in an overwhelmingly Sunni Arab village 20 miles north of Baghdad, received his eviction notice Friday from a man at the door with a rocket launcher."It's 6 p.m.," Rashid recounted the masked man saying then, as retaliatory violence between Shiites and Sunnis exploded across wide swaths of central Iraq. "We want you out of here by 8 p.m. tomorrow. If we find you here, we will kill you."Walking, hitchhiking and hiring cars, the Rashid clan and many of the 25 other families evicted from the town of Mishada had made their way by Tuesday to a youth center in Baghdad's heavily Shiite neighborhood of Shoula. There, other people forced from their homes were already sharing space on donated mattresses....http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022800506_pf.html

A NEW highly addictive drug used in Britain by clubbers and gay men is becoming a global problem, according to a United Nations report published today. The huge increase in use of methamphetamine — crystal meth — is being helped by lax restrictions on the chemicals used to manufacture it. People who take it can experience a ten-hour high and increased sexual arousal. Professor Hamid Ghodse, president of a United Nations’ drug control agency, said: “If I want to pick on one major drug problem pandemic today, it is methamphetamine. “It has not yet affected that much of Western European countries and the UK but, as we know, as drug misuse occurs in North America, sooner or later it gets here. “Methamphetamine is today’s problem drug. We think that it is extremely worrying. ...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2063316,00.html

If politics makes strange bedfellows, "certified e-mail" is making a lot of disparate groups downright kinky. This afternoon, groups from across the political spectrum -- from the Gun Owners of America to MoveOn.org to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) -- will all bed down together to rise up against America Online's (AOL) plan to charge for certain classes of e-mail. "Under AOL's recently announced proposal, large e-mailers willing to pay an 'e-mail tax' can bypass spam filters and get guaranteed access to people's inboxes -- with their messages having a preferential high-priority designation," an EFF statement claims. AOL does not see the proposal as a tax on e-mail users. In early February, AOL said the idea is to guarantee certified bulk mailers a fee for free passage through the company's filters and other anti-spam devices. ...http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3587921

CAN the “War on Drugs” ever be won? History is not encouraging — nor is the latest United Nations report on the state of hostilities. The lessons are particularly depressing for Afghanistan and for the role that Britain has shouldered there. The best news is that use of heroin and cocaine is dropping in the US and some other countries. But their place has been taken by pharmaceutical and prescription drugs, made in developed countries, traded over the Internet and delivered by post. The most threatening “pandemic”, warns Hamid Ghodse, President of the International Narcotics Control Board (ICRB), is of “crystal meth”, an addictive drug popular among clubbers and gay men. There are not many success stories in this “war”, as US politicians call it, an expensive assault stretching back over more than 30 years. ...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2063317,00.html